


no place to raise a child

by The_Curious_Wonderer



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Family, Gen, LATER, NOW FEATURING: Hecuba worrying over her kids, Spoilers for Story and Song part two, alternate title:if the trust was all locked up what did Hurley and Sloane do with Mavis, and thinking about Merle in general, if Hurley drove her car off a cliff how did they drive it to Neverwinter 6-8 months (?) late, this is gonna be so easily canonballed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-11 00:38:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11703147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Curious_Wonderer/pseuds/The_Curious_Wonderer
Summary: "We can't just leave her here, Hurley, there's monsters in the streets-"Mavis has just met two dryads. The two dryads have no idea who they just met.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, my first ever taz fic! Please be nice to me and leave comments.

"We can't just leave her here, Hurley, there's monsters in the streets-"

"Oh, and a battle wagon is totally a safe place for a child. I'm not saying we leave her in the open, we just gotta-"

They'd been arguing for minutes now. Mavis, still gripping both of their hands, sighs.

"We won't take her to battle, just to Neverwinter-"

"Excuse me?"

They both whip their heads downward, focusing on Mavis (who was still missing her glasses and couldn't focus on them, really) as she spoke.

"My dad is probably gonna be in Neverwinter, or at least nearby because that's where the action's going on, and I think I should go with you so I can see him when this is all over."

There were a lot of things Mavis thought she needed to see her dad about. The first one was probably just a really long hug.

"Your dad isn't here with you?" Sloane ask, kneeling down to both Mavis and Hurley's level.

Mavis just grins. "No. He's probably on the moon."

Hurley jolts. "Does he work for the Bureau? We've got some... friends... up there."

"Yeah, he does," Mavis agrees. "Can you bring me along? I'll hang back once we get to Neverwinter, but I think I wanna be there when this all ends."

Sloane looks at Hurley, wooden lips pouting. Hurley just sighs, slumping further as she runs a hand through her leafy hair. "Yeah, fine, kid. What's your name?"

"Mavis. And you're Hurley and Sloane?"

"Got it in one, kid." Hurley says as Sloane slings Mavis up onto her back, and Mavis holds on for dear life as they are suddenly moving very, very fast. The street buckles and breaks as roots stretch and they practically run across them at speeds, frankly, terrifying.

And then they stop in an instant, in front of a dive bar that Mavis can see several odd looking groups cowering inside. Hurley busts down the door with a solid kick and stands triumphant as the multitude of battle wagon racers' jaws drop.

"'Sup, Chucklefucks? Remember us?"

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Sloane literally creates a new battle wagon out of nothing. When Mavis asks how, she shrugs, the motion creating a wooden creak that makes her wince. "It's the finale, Mavis, I think we all get a little bit of inexplicable magic."

Hurley has been rounding up the other racers, gathering them here on the edge of the city. They seem in awe of her, as if one badass ghost had just kicked in their door and ordered a full battalion of dedicated adrenaline junkies.

On second thought, that was exactly what had happened.

"Everybody, load up! We're moving out!" Hurley's yell is met with a cheer and Mavis finds herself bundled into the new wagon, nestled between the (surprisingly warm?) bodies of the dryads who had saved her life. There's a moment where every wagon seems to rev at once, a deafening roar cascading and echoing through Goldcliff's streets behind them.

And then they're off. A line of battle wagons, kicking up dust as they race towards Neverwinter.

"It won't take too long to get there," Hurley says. Maybe an hour or two. How'd you get this to look like my old one?"

"You mean the one you drove off a cliff."

"To save your ass, idiot."

"She made it with magic," Mavis interrupts. "Why'd you drive the old one off a cliff?"

Sloane grumbles. "I may have been using one of the grand relics everybody just remembered."

"Sloane, babe, you were being manipulated by the Gaia Sash, being literally consumed by a tower of vines that were trying to kill me and my friends." Hurley leans back, but her hands are clenched around the fantasy steering wheel, wooden knuckles somehow losing their color to turn white. "I drove off the cliff so I could reach her and try to save her."

"Oh." Mavis drops it. The ride is silent but for the sound of her own breathing. "Do you guys even need to breathe?"

"...Technically?"

"We're made out of tree. We don't have lungs."

"Trees still need oxygen."

"We've got leaves for hair, babe."

"I can breathe," Sloane says, and she takes an exaggerated gulp of air, ballooning out her cheeks.

Hurley reaches over Mavis' head and gives one cheek a hard poke, and the air rushes out.

"Ouch."

"You're made of wood, that didn't hurt you."

"It hurt my feelings."

Mavis settles in.

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They're about an hour in when Sloane asks, "So, what does your dad do in the Bureau of Balance?"

"Oh." Mavis laughs nervously. "You guys actually, um, you actually know him. Well, the whole world does, really, now, so. My dad is Merle Highchurch."

There is a moment of stunned silence, and then Sloane is lunging for wheel as Hurley doubles over with laughter that seems too big to be coming from such a small body.

"Your-" wheeze -"your dad-" shaking shoulders- "is Merle?"

Mavis can't help but clench her jaw and her fists. Maybe he was weird and not exactly the best dad, but-

"Hey, hey, none of that kiddo," Hurley is still practically gasping for breath as Sloane drives for her. "Didn't mean to offend ya. I just- never even pictured Merle being a dad. Ever. Magnus maybe. But Merle- that's _really_ coming from fantasy left field."

"Who were you in Goldcliff with then?" Sloane asks as Hurley retakes the wheel.

Mouth drying suddenly, Mavis looks down. "My mom and step-brother. We were all running toward the trust, but I fell and I lost my glasses and I lost them and-" Her eyes prick with tears but she wills them away, digging her nails into her palms. "They either made it into the trust and I'll find them once this is over, or they didn't and it doesn't matter anyway."

"Hold on," Sloane says, and then she's gone.

"What." Mavis says in reply to the now empty air.

They hit a bump and Mavis' eyes close for the smallest second and then she's back, looking as if she'd never moved.

"What?" She says again.

"We travel along our tree," Sloane explains. "I made this wagon out of our tree. But I just went back to the tree in Goldcliff and slipped into the trust- roots in the foundations- and I yelled for Mavis' family and they found me pretty quick."

She can't help the relieved slump. "Thank the gods."

"We got maybe ten minutes," Hurley says. "Where are you hiding once we reach Neverwinter?"

"I've got a friend who doesn't live to far from the gates. If she's not-"

Her voice cuts off. There's an unspoken understanding that not everyone she knows might have survived whatever assault has been going on.

"Second choice?" Sloane prompts gently.

"There's a temple of Istus maybe a block away from the gate."

"Good girl," Hurley praises, ruffling her hair. "Can you find it even without glasses?"

"It's pretty big," Mavis replies dryly. "I'll be careful not to stumble on the step."

Sloane giggles.

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They come to a screeching halt outside Neverwinter where an army seems to be amassing in front of the gates. On the horizon, a growing storm of inky figures looms. Sloane kisses her forehead, Hurley cups her face, and then she is running through the crowd, deft for her lack of both sight and height.

And then she runs smack dab into someone her size.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," he says, and he's definitely younger than her, and- familiar sounding? She watches his figure do the oh so familiar routine of sticking his glasses back on his face and-

"Mavis?" He seems shocked. Mavis is pretty shocked too. She still doesn't recognize his voice, or his blur. "Didn't you wear glasses?"

"They got trampled," She tries. He- she thinks he's nodding, really quick, sharp, small nods.

"Are you nearsighted?" He asks, and she nods and there's a flare of brightness and then he's pressing glasses onto her face, and she's face to face with...

"Angus McDonald?"

She remembers him and his voice now, the kid who'd spent the day with her and her dad and Mookie here in Neverwinter almost a month ago. The glasses aren't quite her prescription, but they work.

"That's me!" He chirps, then frowns. "I thought your family was on vacation?"

"Yes- how'd you know that?"

"I'm a detective, remember?" And she does. "But, uh, your dad didn't go on his usual visit to see you guys last week and I asked him."

"I... caught a ride." Mavis says carefully, but it's no use. The only vehicles nearby are the battle wagons. His eyes immediately hone in on them.

"Is- are your family okay, Mavis?" His eyes are huge and worried. He seems so much older than he should but he's really barely older than Mookie.

"They are. We just got separated."

Their conversation is cut off by a female voice ringing out over the crowd. Mavis can't see the lady but Angus focuses dramatically on her words. About halfway through the speech, he nudges her. "That's Lup."

That's Lup? Oh, Oh. That's Lup, her father's... friend? Work associate? Fellow alien?

"Weird." She answers back.

And then she realizes she's still standing in the middle of an army.

"I have to go," she suddenly feels panic in her chest. "I need to go hide, I can't fight."

Angus frowns, furrows his brows. "I cast prestidigitation to make those glasses, they won't last that far away from me- or more than an hour, really."

She blinks. "Hey, you're younger than me, shouldn't you be hiding too?"

"No!" He retorts a little too fast. "Taako's been teaching me magic, and I've got my crossbow besides. I'm well trained and I don't need to be treated like a kid!"

Mavis holds her hands up in peace. "No, that's fine. It's just- you are a kid. Even if you can take care of yourself, maybe don't be out here near the frontline? Pick a safer vantage point where you aren't in the middle of the fighting?"

He considers, then grins. "I need to fight, you need to hide. But you can't get too far from me without the glasses disappearing."

Mavis is almost put off by his excitement. "What's your solution, boy genius?"

He grabs her arm- she notices for the first time the bureau of balance bracer lodged around his wrist. "I'm going to break us into the gateway's watchtower and we're gonna make our stand on top."

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In the end, the door is already unlocked. They hurry up the stairs- "I'd kill for an elevator," Angus pouts, - "It's like , three floors, Angus." -and then they're standing above the battlefield. The Hunger's army is so close, the leading giant barely ten footfalls from the bright red cloak leading their side, and even as she watches, Lup extends an arm and blasts it with crackling red energy, and it roars. The rest of their enemy takes that as it's queue to start the last advance and theirs a mighty clash as the two sides meet in the middle. The giant falls to one knee under Lup's onslaught, but it's not out. Angus next to her readies his crossbow and lets loose a bolt, striking a hunger form on the ground. There is nothing Mavis can do but watch.

No. She thinks of her father, probably fighting here somewhere. This hundred year fight that has pursued him endlessly. She thinks of him, and she prays to Pan.

Let me help, she thinks, and a voice insider her whispers, answers, _stretch out your hand_.

She does.

Her first Sacred Flame is weak, barely enough damage to hurt the beast she'd targeted, but it distracts it enough for a woman down below to run it through with a broom handle spear, and it dissipates into ashes.

And that is the battle. Angus beside her, shooting bolt after bolt and the occasional spell, and Pan urging her again and again to let this magic flow through her as she incinerates hunger creature after hunger creature. She doesn't even notice when the judge disappears.

It is only when every enemy disintegrates at once that she lowers her arms and looks upward to see a ship- the Starblaster, her father's ship, _he's on that ship_ \- break from the sky and start its descent.

Angus grabs her arm again and practically drags her, both of their feet stumbling in their haste as the whole crowd presses in but they press harder, and they finally make it to the ship and then Angus is rushing Taako and Magnus and Lucretia is stepping off the ship with Davenport, and _where's her dad_ -

"Mavis?"

She whirls around, straight into his arms, and she doesn't really think she's hugged her dad since he's left them but she is pouring everything she can into it now and he's holding her just as tight, mumbling thanks and exultation into her hair.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hecuba Roughridge sits in the lobby, not crying, not shouting, just holding her son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops! Another chapter! I didn't mean to!  
> I just wanted to know what Hecuba and Mookie were doing!

When the light breaches the walls of the Goldcliff City Trust, the ruckus of a panicking city entrapped in a single building dims and then snuffs out, silence meeting the story and song that have come to meet them.

Hecuba Roughridge sits in the lobby, not crying, not shouting, just holding her son. The only hint that there is more in her mind is the way her fingers are tight on Mookie's shirt, the way her eyes don't quite focus on the window but somewhere a little bit further, a little bit too far.

And then they see it. A century they never knew even could exist, a century of fear and escape and determination that it would not end. A century that ended on this plane, seven people creating seven items and Lucretia, making her choice and shepherding her friends to a new life as she took on the burdens of the world.

Hecuba Roughridge remembers the day that Merle had arrived on that beach, a little forgetful and a little uncertain of where he'd come from. She knows where the stories link up, at least for the two of them.

Mookie twists in her arms, eyes that had been wet with worry and fear almost glowing with the sudden hope the song brought.

He says, "Dad won't let anything happen to Mavis." There isn't a question, her son is eight but he knows this with a clarity that Hecuba cannot match.

Hecuba tries her best to smile. "Not if he has a say in it." She is afraid he doesn't. He is, without a doubt, in the thick of things in Neverwinter, on the moon base, somewhere that is not the streets that her daughter is wandering and lost in.

Merle Highchurch. She had thought once that she might love him. She had only lost Mavis' father two years before her clan had arranged their marriage, but he had always been kind, been amusing, been someone she could see herself falling in love with before she realized that there were parts of him missing and broken and unexplained that she could never work past. It wasn't surprising when he left, but it still hurt.

It was nice to have an explanation.

There is no movement outside, the city streets void of the monsters they could now remember seeing, and Hecuba hopes against hope that Mavis is safe.

She lets Mookie go a few minutes later, watches carefully as he finds a group of children in a corner playing hoop and stick and joins in. Then she tracks down a member of the militia and asks again after her daughter, name Mavis Roughridge, has anyone seen her, did she get in without us somehow. The answers are still no.

Hecuba does not cry. She will not cry. Her child is not gone.

"I'm looking for Mavis' family!" A voice shouts through the crowd, and Hecuba runs. Mookie makes it there first, and there isn't even anytime for surprise as they see a woman- a half elf- made of cherry wood, leaves and blooms in her hair.

"Where's Mavis," Hecuba demands without a second of thought, "where's my daughter."

"We have her, safe and sound, myself and my girlfriend." The dryad explains. "We're on our way to Neverwinter, but we didn't want to leave her behind in the city with no protection. We'll keep her out of the fight there, I promise."

Hecuba nods. "And who... are you?"

She laughs. "Our names are Sloane and Hurley. I'm sure if you ask around, someone can tell you about us." She casts her eyes around the growing circle that is watching their conversation, and Hecuba does the same, but when she looks back, Sloane is gone.

Mookie grabs her hand, grinning up at her. "Told you, Mom."

She grips his hand tighter. "Yes, you did."

Her daughter is going to Neverwinter. Her estranged husband is somewhere thereabouts. Two dryads- with a story that she's about to hunt down from some resident of this city- are watching her. And her son is holding her hand, safe and sound.

She sits back down in the place she had sat earlier, watches Mookie tell someone, "That was my dad! Merle is my dad!"

The human he's talking to laughs. "You know, I actually met him! Magnus Burnsides tried to steal a magnet from my store when they were in Goldcliff trying to get the Gaia Sash from the Raven!"

"That was wild," Another voice pipes in, a gnome peeking through the crowd. "I was in the crowd when they raced, you know, I watched Taako win!"

The room chatters on about them. Hecuba sits quietly still until an officer approaches. "I'm pretty sure that's your son over there? The one talking about Merle Highchurch being his dad."

"He's not lying," Hecuba says sharply.

"I didn't think he was!" The guy defends. "It's just- that means you're his wife? You married him. That's so weird. You married an alien."

It's just the right touch of disbelief for this moment, and she can't help but start laughing, because of everything hat has happened today, this is the last straw. She married an alien. Oh gods, this is ridiculous.

"I guess I did," she finally responds. "Say, do you know anything about two people named Hurley and Sloane? Because apparently they saved my daughter and are taking her to Neverwinter."

It's the officer's turn to laugh. "Holy shit, really? That's fucking amazing. That's- gods, that's hilarious."

He tells her all about his old coworker and her not so secret criminal girlfriend, how the Raven- Sloane- found the Gaia Sash and they both eventually became the tree in the town square.

"I thought they were in there," he tells her. If you walk by, sometimes I swear I could hear them laughing. And it just- the tree feels present, alive- aware? I guess they stepped out and decided to help."

"I'm glad they did," Hecuba sighs. Odd hands for her daughter to be in, but not bad ones.

There's a commotion going on at the door, and the man beside her excuses himself to walk over to it. Hecuba gestures her son back over, wary.

And then her stone of farspeech rings, and Mavis' voice echoes through. "Mom? Mom, you there?"

"Mavis," Hecuba lets her shoulders fall, relaxing for the first time since this day started. "Thank the gods, you're alright, you're in Neverwinter? I-"

"I'm fine, Mom," Mavis cuts her off, "I stayed out of the battlefield-" someone giggles in the background, "-and I'm with Dad and his crew, everything is fine-"

"Hi everyone!" Mookie yells into the stone, and there's a tiny chorus of hellos back, and then Merle's voice saying, "That's Mookie, everyone, that's-" and then Mavis' frustrated sigh.

"Guys, can I talk to my mother in peace?!"

The background noises and voices hush, to Hecuba's amusement.

"Anyway," her daughter sighs, "main points- everyone is fine, there's a bit of partying going on, but I'll make sure that I get back to Goldcliff tomorrow with Hurley and Sloane, I'll find you at the hotel?"

"Sure, dear," Hecuba laughs again. "Thank you. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom." Mavis' voice is soft. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

The stone clicks off right as the commotion at the door halts with a blast of light as the doors open, an authoritative voice yelling, "Its all over, they beat the Hunger, we're safe!"

And there's a roar of excitement as people start streaming out, as they fill the streets with shouting and singing and fun, and Hecuba sweeps Mookie into her arms even though he's a bit too big, and this is when she cries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there ya have it! I'm not really happy with Hecuba's character in this, it feels kinda flat but then again I also feel like she's not exactly doing much thinking except about what Mavis is doing and whether or not she's safe. 
> 
> And why didn't Mavis just call her mom in the first place? Fuck. I forgot she had a stone of farspeech. I guess she forgot it at home when they left for vacation and she ran and got it when the battle ended ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Also, might do a very VERY short 3rd chapter that is nothing but Mavis telling her mom about the battle and Hecuba having a heart attack. Meanwhile Merle's just high five-ing her over and over and crying bc he's so proud that she was using cleric magic like her dad.

**Author's Note:**

> Ta-da! And I gotta say, I didn't really plan on Mavis using cleric powers, nor do I really think she would be one. But do I think that Pan's Merle's daughter praying might inspire the god to help out as much as he can in this battle? That'd be awesome.
> 
> Come scream at me on tumblr @how-do-i-even-life


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